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WinCELL Measurements
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Cells morphology can be done by different methods; automatically, semi-automatically or manually (interactively).
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| Region of analysis The first step for analysing a sample is to choose the region to analyse. All versions can only analyse the whole image while the Pro version can also analyse regions of any shape. |
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| WinCELL Pro can analyse regions of any shape. In the example to the right, an analysed region (outlined in green) has been created to analyse only the earlywood vessels belonging to a particular annual ring. Such regions are created easily simply by outlining them in the image. Commands are provided to rapidly and easily create rectangular and circular analysed regions. |
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| Lumen and wall area Lumen area is measured automatically and is a true measure of the area (based on the number of pixels contained within), not an estimation from its diameter. Lumen can be separated into cells and vessels groups based on their area. Those larger than a value you specify are classified as vessels and those smaller are classified as cells and both groups are analysed separately (you get global and individual data for both of them). You can also change the classification of a cell or vessel simply by pressing a keyboard key and clicking the object to reclassify. Wall area is computed automatically by counting the area of pixels classified as belonging to walls in the analysed region. Lumen and wall area are available as total values for the analysed region (in measurement units and in percentage of the analysed region area). Lumen area is also available on a per cell or vessel basis in the individual analysis data. In addition to cell and wall areas, the Pro version can also measure the lumen and wall area in function of their color, globally for the analysed region or individually (per cell). |
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| Tracheid length and width
Tracheid length and width (or radial and longitudinal diameters) can be computed by different methods. |
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Maximum length and width
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Longitudinal and radial diameters
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| Maximum length and width Tracheid length computed with this method is the distance among the two most distant points of the cell lumen boundary. This is the maximum cell length measured in any direction. Width is the largest diameter in the direction perpendicular to length. |
Longitudinal and radial diameters Length is measured in the radial direction and width in the longitudinal direction (or vice versa). Three variations of this method are offered (they differ in the position and how length is measured). |
| Tracheids length and width are available as average values for the analysed region and individually per cell and vessel. |
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| Cell position | |
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Cells centre position can be measured in the image and relative to the annual ring beginning. The latter allows to compute statistics about cell structural parameters distribution in function of position on annual rings. |
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| Number of tracheids (cells and vessels) | |
| Cells and vessels in the analysed region or on traced paths (see below) are automatically counted. |
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Automatic vs Interactive Measurement Method
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The above mentioned morphological measurements can be computed automatically on all cells present in the analysed region or on selected cells via interactive measurements. In automatic mode all you have to do is click the image or trace the outline of the region to analyse and cells included in that region will be analysed. In interactive mode, you simply draw a line across the cells to measure. The latter is typically used to analyse radial cell rows (rows of cells which position relative to a ring boundary are known). |
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| The interactive measurement mode has four settings | |
| In completely manual mode, no image analysis is done. This mode is provided to measure any object manually simply by clicking at its ends. It can be used to measure a cell length or as illustrated to the right, fibres length. Straight objects can be measured with two mouse clicks at their ends while curved objects can be measured with additional mouse clicks at inflection points along their curvature. Another manual mode is provided to measure an object length and width in pair (which can later be used to estimate its area). The latter can be used to measure cells which don't have enough contrast for the automatic analysis. |
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| Two semi-automatic measurement modes allow to measure cells length and their two adjacent walls thickness (on opposite sides of the lumen). With one method this is done in the traced direction while with the other this is done in the radial direction. |   |
| These two semi-automatic measurement modes also produce the length of radial cell rows (between annual ring boundaries to get ring width). | |
| To learn more about WinCELL click the following links or you can download our WinCELL brochure (1.2 MB).
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